Spark The Beacon
by Grub Leaf-Eater
Summary: What if Summer was actually a uneducated Spark from Europa, and Ruby inherited it from her? Possible future Nuts&Dolts.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

No, I'm not ending Death's Game. I simply had inspiration and since my damned alphasmart died and no longer has chapter 21 on it(Don't worry! It's saved elsewhere, I just can't get at it), I'd move to something else for a little bit. I plan to run both of these at once.

Also, I'd love suggestions for a change of title. Seriously.

* * *

It all started a month after Ruby's eleventh birthday.

Specifically, it started in the morning, when Taiyang went to put down a few pieces of toast.

"Uh, what happened to the toaster?" The sleepy father asked aloud. He heard a loud bang from in front of the house and Ruby laughing, though there was a unusual edge to it.

Oh, God no.

He races outside and sees several appliances and his car disassembled, and in their place a highly complex device had been assembled. Ruby is wearing part of a cut-up old shirt as a headband to keep her hair out of her eyes as she works frenetically on her cobbled together device. She's perched on part of it, in fact.

"Uh, Ruby, what are you doing?" Oh, god, it's just like Summer when she was cooking. Except with MACHINES! At least Summer's cooking was tasty, even if it was accompanied by evil laughter and sometimes had odd effects on whoever ate it. For instance, her calming cookies.

Though those were well worth the maniacal laughter in the right situation.

Apparently, she'd adapted the recipe from a cream pie from some guy she met. All he knew was that it had butter and nutmeg in it.

"I'm building Othar!" She responds cheerily as she works.

Summer had told stories of a hero from her world. Othar was his name.

"Ruby, PLEASE stop, and put my car back together?" He pleads helplessly. If she's anything like Summer was when she was like this, trying to pull her away from it would require insane levels of force and hogtying her-and they had managed that with Summer exactly once. It had taken all three of her teammates, Headmaster Ozpin, and two other Huntsmen-in-training to fully immobilize her, and then she got PISSED. Even if Ruby was a lot weaker than him, she also didn't have aura, so he wouldn't have any real options if she went berserk the way Summer did that time. Sadly, they had run out of calming cookies.

"But I'm almost done!" She exclaims. "Aaaaaand THERE." She hops down from the shoulder she was standing on and gazes proudly up at the Othabot.

It straightens up as it activates, gazing down at Ruby. While crude, it possesed a mock face.

" **What is my duty, O My Creator?** " the Othabot asked.

"To protect all Humanity!" Ruby exclaimed with a gleeful sparkle in her eye.

" **Define Term:Humanity.** "

"Uhhhhhhh. You know. Humans? Faunus?"

" **I see. Define Terms: Human. Faunus.** "

Taiyang sweats. This could be a issue.

"A human is someone like me, except they can be younger or older, and if they're older than me they're prolly bigger, and younger smaller. A faunus is a human 'cept they have traits from a animal, like ears or a tail."

" **Processing... Verifying... Input accepted. Initializing personality... Personality initialized.** "

There is a pause as the Othabot suddenly scowls in the direction of the road.

" **FOUL AUTOMATON! UNHAND YOUR CAPTIVES IMMEDIATELY!** "

Yeah, Taiyang totally saw this coming. Not that it matters, since the Othabot takes off faster than he can readily follow and he doesn't have a weapon.

"Othabot! No! _Stop!_ That's just a car, it isn't doing _anything_ to them!" Ruby yells after it, starting to run in it's direction before getting stopped by Taiyang placing a hand lightly on her shoulder.

"...I think we need to have a talk." He says flatly.

* * *

Taiyang sits in front of his daughters, alongside Qrow. "Ruby, it's difficult to tell you this, but your mother was not from Remnant."

"WHAT?!" Both girls respond.

"Summer was from a distant land, and possibly from another time, known as 'Europa'." He says, taking a deep drink of water. "In this land, there were people known as 'Sparks' who have a natural genius...and a even more natural, uncontrollable urge to apply it. Sparks who were not educated early and well tended to apply this genius in more limited fashions-for instance, Summer was a culinary spark. We still have some of her pastries in deep storage, and others in containment. Her crossiants, as I recall, were particularly deadly."

Yang quirks her eyebrow. "Croissants? Deadly?"

"You really don't want to know. In any case, sparks tend to 'break out' in deadly ways, from what she remembers. We've been on high alert, and frankly we are quite fortunate that the only real consequences of your breakthrough were a couple of wrecked cars..."

Ruby bowed her head meekly. "...I will not apologize for Science, or for creating a Hero." She mumbles almost inaudibly.

Taiyang sighs and shakes his head. "Just...try not to do anything that will cripple anyone? Or scar them for life like the Ramen Noodle incident."

"The what?" Yang furrows her eyebrows.

"I'll tell you when you're older, kid." Qrow chimes in.

"Anyway, that's all I can tell you that she told me, but I'll tell you what I know about Sparks from observation. Firstly, you should be incredibly quick on the uptake regarding tech. Secondly, you must be kept away from any and all drinks with significant amounts of caffeine barring major emergencies... Thirdly...You SHOULD be naturally more resilient and strong, even without Aura."

Qrow quirks a eyebrow. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. She also told me that all Sparks are a little...unstable. Don't get offended if you're referred to as 'the mad scientist' or anything like that, because, according to her, it's actually...kind of accurate. For goodness' sake, Sparks have made SILVERWARE GUNS. And not knives either!"

"But... What if they're afraid of me?" Ruby asked, a little panicked at this point.

"Then they clearly aren't cool enough to be your friends anyway!" He pauses. "Besides, your mother always loved making the other Hunters tremble before her when she went Sparky. Maybe you will too?" He suggests hopefully.

"Tai, we're teachers. I don't think we're supposed to be encouraging terrified trembling." Qrow points out sardonically.

"I'm not. I'm encouraging my DAUGHTER to be happy with whatever emotions she ends up inspiring in her classmates." He says cheerfully. "Who knows, maybe someone will think she's really cool and it'll be the Sparkof a new friendship?"

His only response is a chorus of groans from both the girls and Qrow.

* * *

Othabot stares at a TV which is playing the first Indigo Bones movie.

" **INPUT ACCEPTED. A HERO REQUIRES A HAT.** "

* * *

"Neo, do you ever get this feeling of sudden foreboding?" Roman casually asks as he flips a coin.

Neo shakes her head bluntly.

"Neither do I." He lies as one hand moves protectively to his hat.


	2. Chapter 2

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ruby had little restraint in her scientific tendencies. It wasn't hard for her to build a high-powered furnace in their backyard, though it took a little bit of persuading to get her to actually clear a area around it to keep anything from catching on fire. She was currently sipping at a cup of lemonade as she heated a small crucible inside of her furnace, to the mild concern of Taiyang and delight of Yang. After al, Yang had asked for her sister's help in constructing her weapon. Sure, it might be cheating, but hey, why would you NOT tap a major resource like a little sister who was literally a slightly insane genius? Sadly for Ruby, Yang vetoed most of her (extremely heavy) weapon ideas. Perhaps that was for the best, though-Taiyang disliked the idea of her making anything truly deadly, and, as he pointed out, he could always build her some upgrades later! Thus mollified, Ruby decided to go with Yang's original weapon idea and simply ramp it up to 11. Yang had provided the blueprints she'd been working on before Ruby's breakthrough, and Ruby had made all the modifications she needed to, such as removing superfluous parts and adding extra barrels to the gun portion.

When she was done, the blueprint looked closer to a gatling gun than the original gauntlet...and that's because it was! The thing's going to be belt-fed Dust shells, and the barrels'll lock into place when she was busy firing at more distant targets. For close-up(or if she actually wanted to hold something), the barrels unlock and slide back to reveal a set of deadly spiked knuckles. The barrels could still be fired from this position, but they were no longer on full automatic and activated based on pressure to the knuckles instead.

At least, that's the theory. And it's time for Ruby to put it into practice. Taiyang's just glad he awoke her Aura the day after she broke through-the stuff she's playing with could easily kill her if she wasn't careful. Even with Aura, she could seriously scar herself if she was careless.

She lifts the crucible out by the metal pole attached to it and pours the metal into the first mold, the one she'd made for the basic shape of the gauntlet, the non-moving parts at least. She pauses. Hmmm, she has a little left over. Might as well move on to the second set of molds. She pours those out before placing more metal into the crucible and shoving it back into the furnace. She walks back to her lemonade and gulps it down thirstily. Weaponsmithing was hot work!

* * *

 **"WHAT HO, EVILDOER!"** Cried the Othabot for the fourteenth time that day.

Roman reacted as if stung, whipping around and levelling his cane at the Othabot menacingly. "And who are you-no, what are you?!" He exclaims.

 **"I AM OTHAR TRYGGVASSEN, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!"** Bellowed the robot. **"AND YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A COMMON THIEF!"**

"Surely there must be some kind of mistake?" Roman tries.

 **"HM, YES, I SUPPOSE YOU'RE RIGHT. NO *COMMON* THIEF WOULD SPORT SUCH A MAGNIFICENT EXAMPLE OF HABERDASHERY."** The Othabot amends, strokes his chin. **"CLEARLY YOU ARE A MASTER AT ACQUIRING THE POSSESSIONS OF OTHERS AND THUS IT FALLS TO ME, _OTHAR TRYGGVASSEN, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER_ TO SET THIS RIGHT. HAVE AT YOU!"**

Roman dodges nimbly. "Wait, you want my hat?"

 **"MOSTLY AS A SIDE NOTE."** The robot says.

"I KNEW it!" Roman fires at the Othabot. "Well, you CAN'T HAVE... it..."

The Othabot holds his bullet in between it's forefinger and thumb, examining it with mild interest before flicking it back at Roman, knocking the hat off his head.

Roman staggers back, for the first time in the encounter looking utterly terrified rather than surprised. He takes one glance at his hat.

Fuck it, there are other fancy hats in the world, and he can always steal another. He turns tail and flees.

"I won't forget this, you bucket of bolts!" He cries defiantly over his shoulder.

The Othabot leaps after him and siezes him by the shoulder. **_"FIRST_ YOU WILL RETURN WHAT YOU JUST STOLE."**

"Ah, right..." He mutters seemingly chastened.

* * *

About a year later, it was Ruby's first year in a junior Hunter's academy. It wasn't Signal or Beacon, but it was damn well a start!

She had already earned herself a reputation among her peers over the last year, sadly-though store owners were ALWAYS happy to see her around. When she wasn't buying a massive amount of stuff, she was selling the mechanical-type places better wares for slightly cheaper to try to fund the massive amount of stuff she bought, or trading it in for goods. She even had offers from the Atlesian Millitary and the SDC to sponsor her through schooling if she would sign on as a engineer slash researcher afterwards, but she declined. Spark or no spark, she was determined to be a Huntress.

Taiyang and Qrow were also relatively supportive of(if mildly concerned about) her work, supplying whatever reasonable funds or items she asked for.

At first, most of her classmates had called her a geek or a nerd. But then one day, a bully with three cronies who reckoned themselves to be a Hunter team in training cornered her, figuring that with Yang away, it wasn't like she was any threat.

They learned differently very, very quickly, and on that day, Ruby earned the nickname of the Madgirl. Oh, people didn't use it around her, and if they ever slipped and said it around her, they apologized rather energetically. To her mild dismay, Ruby did find such incidents mildly entertaining, but they still put a massive damper on her social life regardless. She had no real friends among her classmates. What friends she did make were at the library, where she hoarded a massive pile of books and got the attention of some of the slightly more social bookworms, who invited her to read with them. Mind, all four of them were older than she was, but she was more than smart enough to hold her own in any conversations they had.

One day, a rabbit Faunus wandered in and took a bunch of books from the weaponry section.

Curious, Ruby moved closer.

"I can't get my bloody weapon to work!" Groaned Velvet, head falling forward onto the table in sheer frustration.

"Perhaps I could be of assistance?" Asked` the 'Madgirl' eagerly.


	3. Chapter 3:Energizer

Spark The Beacon Chapter 3:Energizer

"Uh, no offense, but you look a little young to be working on weapons..." Velvet says nervously. "Besides which, what makes you think you can do better than I can?" She asks.

"Just lemme see that." She reaches into the middle of the pile of books, withdrawing Velvet's notebook. Her eyebrows raise.

"Interesting design, but I can see several clear inefficiencies that it can neither store nor process enough dust to make up for. If I understand the design right, this should produce hard-light duplicates of weapons that you analyze with a photographic device?"

"Come again?" Velvet looks mildly befuddled.

"You take pictures and it makes weightless but solid copies of what you photograph."

"Oh, well, yes..." She says, looking a little disappointed. "Is it really that simple?"

"No, I'm just that good. Now, is it important that these copies weigh absolutely nothing in some way?"

"Well, not as such...why?"

"I've heard rumors about a experimental Dust type the SDC is working on, a proprietary blend of Earth and a few other things. I'll see if I can get my hands on a sample of it. Basically, it should make it possible for your camera box thing to create ACTUAL METAL copies of the things you photograph, which should mean a smaller quality gap and less overall Dust consumption, not to mention that you won't expend the weapons too quickly."

"What if I don't want to carry around a bunch of metal weapons I made copies of, though?" Asked Velvet, cocking her head. "Or I need to copy something BESIDES metal?"

"I suppose I can leave the hard-light a option, but I would still remove this part and replace it with one of the prismatic converters they use in the standard-issue rifles they give to Knight-130s."

"And that's another thing, how are you planning to source these materials and parts?!"

"Atlas and the SDC are both interested in hiring me when I grow up. Apparently, word of my accomplishments has gone far."

"...Accomplishments?"

"...I _may_ have made the robot that's been all over the news for the last year."

"YOU made Othar Tryggvassen? He's a menace!"

"Only because he doesn't know enough about things to hero properly." Ruby whined softly. "When I first activated him, he attacked cars because he thought they were kidnapping people."

Velvet blinks, then snickers besides herself, shaking her head before suddenly sobering. "And what exactly do you expect to get out of this?" She asks, mildly suspiciously.

"Uhhhhhhhh... I hadn't actually given that any thought?" She says sheepishly. "Oh, I know! Since Dad and Uncle Qrow are sometimes too busy to help train me, maybe we could spar now and then or something?"

"I thought Atlas... or the SDC... was going to hire you when you grew up?" Her mild distaste is evident at the idea of the latter hiring Ruby.

"All I said was they were interested. Never said I had any plans to work with them." Ruby grins smugly. "I might have to agree to outsource one or two things for them to get things out of them, but I'm sure it won't be that bad."

* * *

"General Ironwood, Sir, the second generation spark has offered to do some work for us in exchange for 10 Atlesian Knights and a Paladin, including their weapons but not ammunition. When I asked why she wanted them, she said she wanted to study them and make her own improvements, modifications, and strip one or two of the guns for parts." His secretary reports with a salute.

"Has she now?" Ironwood looks thoughtful. "Make her a counteroffer of five and a decommissioned Paladin, along with the chance to contribute to Project Polendina. Robot designation Tryggvassen proves that she's capable of making fully, or at least nearly fully intelligent robots, and a scan with a scroll revealed that it had aura, though a incredibly weak one."

The secretary nods briefly.

"Oh, and also, send her an extra rifle with the request that she find a way to substantially increase the energy output and precision without increasing the weight noticeably and send a prototype back."

"Sir, if I may, she still is just a child."

"A child who wishes to be a Huntress.. And the only Spark we have that I truly believe would not choose Europa over Remnant in a heartbeat."

"Are you saying...?"

"Sooner or later, the rift will grow. Instead of random portals appearing for a few minutes, we will have stable doorways. When that day comes, I'm certain we will, one way or another, find ourselves at war with Europa. And from the stories I've heard, Sparks regularly create menaces greater than the Grimm. On the other hand, you cannot train someone to become a Spark... So in the end, it will boil down to numbers against mad genius, and that is not a fight I care to choose So yes, we will ruthlessly exploit the second generation spark. We cannot afford to let her talents go to waste, and besides... She came to us."


	4. Chapter 4

Spark 4:

About a week later, Ruby hears a knock at the door. She scrambles to her feet only to find herself interrupted by Tai opening the door.

"*Delivery for Miss Ruby Rost Rose?*" Inquires the robot.

"...Ruuuuuuby...?" Taiyang gives Ruby a look.

"Oh come onnnnn, it's not a big deal, I just needed some parts for a project I'm doing to help out someone I met at the library..." She whines. "And how did they even learn my middle name, I never told Atlas that..."

"*Confirmed: Ruby Rost Rose. Changing allegiance... Allegiance changed. Orders, Mistress?*" Inquires the robot in sync with it's four companions, who set down the wheelbarrow containing the decommissioned Paladin.

"Provide me with one copy of your owner's manual and whichever of you is furthest from perfect working order, shut down and open any self-triggered maintenance panels for inspection."

"*Yes, Ma'am.*" They reply in perfect unison before one begins to remove various plates from it's body and another presents her with a booklet which she quickly scans.

"Oh, yes, and do you have a booklet for your rifles? If so, please supply me with one copy of it."

She's quickly presented with that too and she scans that quickly too. In a minute, she strips down the now shut down Knight along with their rifle. She examines the prismatic converter carefully.

"Hmmm, now that I think about it, while there would be a slight reduction in efficiency..."

She scampers off to the box of leftover parts from the Othabot's creation, withdrawing a piece from the microwave that served to focus the microwaves and returning.

"There should also be a fair increase in power and precision if I replace that with this! And unlike the photographic replication box, there isn't anything major riding on the efficiency of the guns-in fact, if anything I'll make the SDC happier by slightly increasing the amount of dust Atlas uses in each conflict-though there might also be a reduction in conflicts because the bots will win more..." She ponders that for a second before shrugging. "Well, let's try it!"

Taiyang sighs. "I'll set up a targeting range. Please have one of your new robots test it out, just in case it blows up?"

"Why would I do that? My Aura should be more than sufficient for any amount of explosive force that this can inflict, and exposing my Knights to that would actually damage them! How can I expect to be a Huntress if I'm so afraid of getting minor scrapes that I have robots do all the slightly risky things?"

Taiyang looks dubious but accepts the reasoning, going off to set up the targeting range like he said.

* * *

Marcus Wultensturm gives his son a hard look.

"How cn' you ever expect to be one of the fuckin' Smoke Knights if we ever get off this goddamn hellscape, ya fuckin' wimp?"

"Maybe I don't care about serving the Storm King!" Mercury retorts. "Besides which, what makes you think we can even get back?"

"Whenever there's a way in, there's always a way back." He growls back at Mercury. "An' I don't want to serve the heir either, but y'damn well know we don't have any choice."

"Father, we're in another WORLD. I don't think they'll hunt us down here for deserting, or blame us if we abandon hope of getting back!" He yells.

Marcus rests his head in his hands. "Fetch me 'nother fuck'n drink while I try'n think this through, boy." He sighs. "And then go strip the weapon of our latest target and put't back together. Remember t'take notes, we should bring back everything we c'n from this blasted world if we do make our way back."

Mercury growls under his breath and casually hurls a bottle of whiskey at Marcus, who easily catches it without even lifting his head.

"If'n we manage to get off this world, 't won't be on our own. They don't teach us Storm Knights much'a anythin' but chemistry, and I'll be damned if I can see a way to create a rift back w'chems, much less one that we can reliably return t'Europa with." He growls to himself. "So tha'means we'll need to find another Spark, 'r the closest thing around to it anyway. We pro'bly can't find a damn Spark, so we'd have to settle for whatever passes for science around here. I don't like those numbers, so our alternative is t' either wait for someone to find us, 'r to just abandon the Storm King altogether and prepare f'r them to come after us. We have Aura, they don't, so we migh' even win."

His damned son couldn't even grow red hair. He'd be the laughingstock of the Smoke Knights even if he DID get back.

Mercury, meanwhie, efficiently strips down the weapon while casting a hateful look at Marcus. Someday, he'd get what was coming to him... Old drunk bastard.

* * *

"Cousin... I'll find you... And then, I'll find my way back to Skifander." Zeetha, Daughter of Chump murmurs in another world, closing her hand around the locket containing the picture of a young girl, with green hair only a few shades brighter than her own.

* * *

"Who would have thought that it would be so easy to find my way to another universe?" Mused a clank with a grin. "Ah, well, I suppose I might as well start preparing, It wouldn't do for any of the other versions for me to arrive and me not to have a proper welcome prepared after all!" The ex-Muse smirks.

* * *

In a dismal alley, a teenaged urchin dreams of a hidden city in a jungle.

Of having a family who actually cared for and about her, but whose faces she cannot remember.

The city, and the starless sky(for the stars' lights are drowned out by those of the streets) swallow the sound of her crying.

It never occured to her when she woke up that the dreams might actually be a reality.

Why would it? There are no cities in jungles on Remnant, for there are only four cities... So Skifander was nothing but a empty dream, and dreams would not fill her empty stomach.

* * *

Ruby was exhausted. Modifying the laser rifle just to accept the new part was hard work, and it wasn't until she finished that she realized that Atlas might not actually be able to source the part, even if it worked. Regardless, it was time to test it! She heads to the backyard, takes aim and pulls the trigger...

...And it blows up in her face.

Fortunately, as she predicted, her Aura was more than up to the task, and she collects the scrap with a little 'humph' to see what she can salvage from it.


	5. Chapter 5

Ruby, with a little bit of work, found that she could rig the rifles to output approximately 150% more power in exchange for a minor issue of overheating to the extent of the barrels melting, and also a sliiiiight bit of inefficiency. So she took the design she rigged and built a entire new chassis for the rifle with detatchable barrels, along with a secondary line for human users that infused Ice dust into the entire gun to cool it. A touch complex to manufacture, perhaps, but the massive gain in firepower should reduce overhead as they're deployed. And the dust to infuse a single rifle was less than might be used in a single conflict, anyway-really, the only fuss was to make a machine that could handle infusion.

So she simply created a new clank, using mainly parts from the Paladin and one of the Knights, and named him Smithers. Programmed to both be obedient to her(hopefully) and to be enamoured with all things related to metalworking, Smithers took to dust infusion like a fish to water, helping Ruby crank out 5 infused rifles along with 5 bot-rifles and 10 modular barrels.

When she sent Smithers and the rifles, she pointed out that helping with the Polendina project would, in fact, be helping them; so while she appreciated that offer, she would have to decline.

* * *

"Sir, Spark Rose seems to have seen through your offer regarding Polendina."

"...Did she ask for anything in return for doing it?"

"No, we may have insulted her."

"Dammit... Make her a offer she won't refuse."

"Uh... Sir? We aren't the mafia."

"Wha- NO! Not a offer she can't refuse. A offer she WON'T. Something she'll really want! I don't know, offer her a real paladin, one that isn't decommissioned?"

"Sir, why not just reverse engineer...Smithers? He seems to contain a small amount of Aura as well."

"Because that robot is a damn good worker and, as of our time of reciept, a soldier of Atlas. To dismantle him, even should he stop functioning, would be a stain upon the honor of every man, woman, robot, man piloted robot, woman piloted robot, and woman piloted ma-" He blinks. "-er, just stop at woman piloted robot, in the Atlesian Army."

"...Understood, sir." The secretary just looks WAY too tired to deal with what he just heard Ironwood cut himself off at. "...Sir?"

"What?"

"You forgot the cyborgs, the people who checked 'other', the cyborg piloted robots, and the... 'other' piloted robots."

James Ironwood facepalmed.

"Oh, and by the way, sir, unless you plan to invite me to take part... please keep your sex life to yourself."

General Ironwood's other hand comes up and lands on his face next to the one already palming it. "You're lucky I really, really need you or you'd be in trouble for insubordination."

"Trust me, I know." Smirked the Secretary.

* * *

Okay, now that that was taken care of... Time to deal with something for Velvet!

She decides to make things a simple toggle between hardlight(which would mimic projectile weapons) and metallic(which would not without actual ammo) copies.

After a few days in the lab, she has a working prototype and calls Velvet.

"H-hey Ruby! What's up?" Greets the Rabbit faunus somewhat nervously. After all, she had heard SOME of the rumors about the Madgirl. They were getting a BIT more popularized, especially after she jokingly started labelling the things she sold for pocket money 'Madgirl Makings, LLC'.

"Heya Velvet!" She says casually. "I'm pretty sure I've worked out mooooooost of the major issues with your weapon! I'm thinking you should take it and maybe have a few practice spars with it?" She suggests.

Velvet's eyes light up. "So it's done?" She says eagerly.

"Nonononono, it's in *beta*" Responds Ruby. "I wouldn't take this into a actual life-or-death situation. So far, you have three settings- Metal or hardlight, hardlight intensity-for training purposes you might want to turn it down so you can train longer- and finally, memory wipe. If you copy a particularly low quality weapon, you might want to wipe it from memory in order to save time cycling through them in battle."

Velvet grins. "Does it do colors?" She asks.

Ruby gives her a venomous glare.

"Kidding, kidding!" Velvet yelps, cowering slightly as her ears droop a little.

"Dammit, now people really are trembling before me." Mutters the Madgirl. "It's alright, just... The color is actually important. If you form it out of blue light, it'll last further from the projector. If you make it from red... well, it really, really won't."

"O-oh, alright." Said Velvet, still nervous from Ruby's reaction.

"So, meet you at the library?" Ruby suggests.

"Alright!" Velvet agrees with a smile.

* * *

Once the delivery happened, Ruby was...actually kind of bored. She was having difficulty thinking of a project.

Say...Didn't her father say something about her mother being a culinary Spark?

And didn't he keep a book locked up?

It took surprisingly little effort for her to jimmy the lock and extract...

...

Did her mother seriously call it "Ye Olde Cookebooke of Doome, Joye and Deliciousnesse"?

She cracks the book open.

* * *

Psych! Don't worry, the rest of this book is nowhere near as medieval as the title.

I should warn the reader that all of these recipes require a certain spark of talent to properly prepare; or at least, since they were created by someone with such a spark, should really be left to those such.

* * *

Subtle.

Let's see about those calming cookies.

* * *

Calming Cookies

Derived from the calming pies of a certain gentleman traveling with a circus;

* * *

She scans the ingredients. Butter, nutmeg, flour, sugar, molasses, eggs... She wipes away a tear that comes to her eye as she imagines her mother cooking before reverently setting the book down.

She gets up and gathers all the ingredients and starts to cook.

Line

Taiyang had sometimes been haunted by the voices of his loves, imagined feeling them next to him in bed, fervently hoped for their touch so hard that he almost felt it.

But never before had he hallucinated the scent of Summer's cooking, nor the cackles associated with it.

A tear comes to his eye as he sits in siilence in his bedroom, too overcome by emotion, for the moment, to go out and say anything about it.

* * *

In spite of her search for answers, Yang had always considered Summer more her mom than Raven. Which is why when Ruby began to cook, and that old but not forgotten smell filled the air, her eyes too filled with tears.

* * *

The first batch of cookies came off the tray and she put on some more. She grabbed napkins and one cookie for herself to take the edge off her...sparkiness... before bringing two cookies to each of the others. Okay, so she might have been leaving three from that batch for herself, but hey.

The calming aspect worked perfectly, in fact.

(It would be noted later that there was a good chance that the whole reason Ruby liked cookies quite so much was because she was in fact addicted to the calming ones.)

She delivered to Yang first, who looked slightly stunned, and then to her dad, who simply gave her a sad smile.

"You could have asked, you know." He said quietly as she left the room. She paused slightly, not looking towards him, and nodded before leaving the room fully.

She needed to calm down a little more, she thinks.

* * *

Author's Note

Agatha Clay had her locket; Ruby Rose has her cookies.

If you're too busy being calm to go into the Madness Place, how can y' get any madgirling(or madboying) done?

Unlike Madgirl, or Madboy for that matter, which are in fact Spark-specific slurs(Not that Ruby knows it, nor in fact do the others), the Madness Place is a acceptable term, by the by.

Do not confuse Madboys with the Madboyz. There shall be no WAAAAAGHing.

Also, goshdarnit if you're reading this and somehow haven't read Girl Genius, go read Girl Genius. Potential spoilers abound.


	6. Chapter 6

"James, you did WHAT?!" Exclaimed Professor Ozpin.

"I worked with the second generation spark, Ozpin." General Ironwood tranquilly responded. "It's not like she wouldn't have been performing miracles of science if we hadn't made requests of her, and besides, she came to us, not the other way around."

"Well, yes, but what kind of impression will that make on her? Damn it all, we need to make sure that Miss Rose is firmly on our side." He sips his cocoa irritably. "When she thinks of that, will she think of grown men who already have a lot of power seeking more, or seeking the tools to protect the citizenry with? Will she think that it's alright to sell her abilities to anyone who has the wherewithal to pay her, or will she decide only to work with governments?" He takes a actual gulp this time.

General James Ironwood visibly flinched. Ozpin always sipped his cocoa. He could sip it mirthfully. He could sip it with a look of sadness somehow passing through the cup. He could sip it and convey irritation.

But when he gulped at his cocoa, all of that communication shut off. But as he knew from personal experience, that only meant that his friend Ozpin was well and truly angry.

"V-very well then, Ozpin. How would you suggest I proceed?" He asks carefully.

"... While Summer and Taiyang never were prone to greed, the Branwens were somewhat...more so. Hopefully, Yang and Qrow are not a bad influence on her in that regard." He shuts his eyes and takes another gulp. "...You will have to keep contracting to her whenever she asks, or whenever something comes up. Do *not* make up work for her, but neither should you keep something you believe would be more suited to her abilities than those of your own researchers and engineers from her." Gulp. "Make sure to deliver *exactly* what you promise to her. Err on the side of generosity. As I've heard it told, she *gave up* a good chunk of the reward you offered her in order to fulfill your request as exceptionally as possible. She could well have left the issue of feasibly imbuing rifles for the use of your soldiers to you to arrange." He takes a light sip, calming down but still radiating frustration with the way his lips work over the lip of the cup. "She seems to be unusually consciencious in her dealings, and it would do well to encourage this trait."

"Very well. Shall we move on to the issue of your Grimm Studies teacher?"

"Ah, yes... Professor Merlot." A more lighthearted sip. "Certainly a much better choice for the post than Peter, I'm afraid. Of course, he is from Europa, but he assured me he'd spend a few months cutting up some grimm to study them before classes start."

"And you're sure he can be trusted?"

"He's assured me that he's had a falling out with the Baron which all of the...immigrants from Europa so fear." Sip. "Of course, the traumas he's suffered from having to work with Spark students are not to be ignored, but I assured him that very few of his students indeed will bear even a fraction of the Spark that he has exhibited. His presence leaves Peter available to help keep the wilderness clear, or to substitute for another teacher who is out." He seems to laugh into his next sip of cocoa. "...It also ensures that the students will stay awake in class. Why, I'm afraid that this year, we might not even have to bell curve the Grimm Studies exams!"

"As long as you're sure about him..." Muttered James. "I don't like the way that your recording showed his eyes lighting up when you started talking about the basics of Grimm."

"Oh, that'll just be the first stages of a Spark fugue. It's fine as long as you don't anger them while they're in it." He waves Ironwood off with his non-sipping hand. "Besides which, he didn't look like much of a fighter. I'm sure that in the second stage he might make me sweat...if he had Aura. You must remember that these Sparks, while fearsome fighters, accrue physical damage at a much more rapid rate than anyone with Aura does."

"And a Spark with aura?"

"...Was one of the best Huntresses that ever graduated from Beacon." He gulps down the rest of his cocoa before grabbing the pot. "Want a mug?"

* * *

By thirteen, Ruby had developed some light eye strain-enough to cause her eyelids to occasionally spasm. Ah, well, it wasn't like she was going to convince someone of her sanity anyway. Even Velvet, one of the nicest of her friends had to admit when pressed that she was rather...off.

Speaking of Velvet, their sparring sessions were quite productive. Ruby's slight form made her seem deceptively weak, when in actuality she could effortlessly smash through stone with her bare fists.

Mind you, it hurt like a bitch to do it, but she was still insanely strong. Her strength forced Velvet to develop her speed further, which in turn forced Ruby's speed to develop as well

They also studied together, since Ruby was breezing through her classes. In fact, she was even pushed forward a grade after a quick test of her combat prowess-she was tossed up against a lone Beowolf, which she slew bare handed.

Before she was 14, she would have to make a weapon.

Little known fact about Sparks-sometimes they go through phases just like artists. At this time, Ruby was on a electromagnetism kick. So after a week of planning(Which worried Tai and Yang something fierce-when someone who can create robots on the fly starts planning for a serious period of time, you know that something horrible is going to happen) she created the monstrosity she affectionately nicknamed the 'Splash Zone'.

What was it?

Well, simply put, it was a 150 pound railscythe.

Before she had become a Spark, she always knew that she wanted to use a scythe, but at the same time, spooked a bit by the encounter Qrow saved her from, she was subconsciously afraid of getting too close. In the original timeline, this would have resulted in a sniper scythe.

In this timeline, it had resulted in a 'single-fire dust-powered electromagnetic projectile propulsion armament system'- Or Sdeppy as she rarely called it. Very rarely.

Of course, upon seeing it, Velvet flat out refused to spar Ruby with it, so as usually she tossed the girl the sword she'd forged for training. Velvet, winning for a change, was about to land a particularly vicious blow as Ruby approached 25% aura, and her eyes widened imperceptibly when she realized that she could actually hurt the Spark. She had already committed to the attack, however.

Suddenly, Velvet's movement slowed to a crawl. Confused, Ruby turned her hea-Wow, her head's moving at a snail's pace too. Ruby too had committed to her attack, a straight rush and stab

Her foot slowly descended to the ground and she made a decison.

* * *

Velvet blinks. Ruby had reacted impossibly fast, or perhaps it was a accident that she had tripped in a way that her face barely missed the sword?

* * *

Out of peril, Ruby's newfound semblance calmed down. Instead of slowing things by a factor of a hundred, it seemed as though everything had slowed more by a factor of two. Which was fortunate as one of the things that had slowed down was Ruby's body.

with her newfound 'reflexes' and abilitiy to more rapidly percieve incoming light, she scrambled to her feet and waited. The next attack Velvet launched was repelled, and a quick flick of her blade sent Velvet's sword spiraling out of bounds. "Yield!"

* * *

"Yid!" She hears in a too-high-pitched, too rapid voice from her sparring partner. Confused, she puts her hands up. "What?"

* * *

"Whaaaaahthu" She hears in slow motion, Velvet's voice much slower and deeper than normal. She focuses on clearing her semblance, figuring it might be causing issues. "I said yield."

* * *

"I said yield." Oh, hey, her voice/pace is back.

"I yield. What the hell was that? Your reactions were superhuman, but your voice..."

"My voice? You went all deep and stuff and said 'what' really, really slowly!" Ruby retorts.

"Uh, we should probably find someone who would know what that meant as a semblance..."

* * *

It was determined that Ruby's semblance allowed her to perceive more rapidly than others. That is to say, for every second someone else experienced, she would experience two to a hundred. Her brain could only take a hundred for about .6 of a second at a time, but still.

Soon enough Velvet and Ruby mutually decided that sparring was just too dangerous for both of them and left off still chattered and studied together, though.

Of course, by 14, every last kink in Velvet's Box had been repaired, and most of the ones in her scythe, too. Atlas had contacted her with a few projects and worked closely with her to iron out the last of Project Polendina, especially programming the restraining mechanisms. Specifically, inability to use lethalrce on nonviolent criminals and inability to use any force on non-criminal non-military personage barring special circumstances as ordered by the current General of the Atlas military.

She managed to skip another year, and thus rather than graduate to Beacon at 17, or cheat her way in because she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, instead Ruby fought tooth and claw to get in at the early age of 15. By this point, Madgirl Makings was raking in quite a bit of cash, which she was using some of to fund her more personal projects and some of went into a emergency fund. She needed quite a bit of raw Dust in order to work with Smithers II and to test-fire Splash Zone.

..wasn't it explained why it was called that?

Simply put, Ruby originally test fired it 10 feet away from a ballistic gel dummy with Yang nearby. Quite a bit of the dummy got all over both of them. After she was smacked for messing up Yang's hair(and quickly came up with a invention to get the gel off them!) they both agreed that the weapon had quite the 'splash zone'.

Yang hoped quite hard that she never used it on a person.

...Anyway, so she was in From Dust Till Dawn to pick up her order, headphones half on, half off when a bunch of thugs stormed in and shoved her to the side. The goon who pushed her didn't even notice the lumpy, massive metallic 'box' strapped to her back, which turned out to be a mistake. She quietly pulls it off her back before unfolding iit. One of the thugs lets out a girly yelp at the girl with what seemed to be a 150 pound mace in her hands. You see, SZ had three configurations- Box, Folded-as in the scythe blade folded down, making it into a...less...lethal weapon and one that can't be fired-and 'Bloody Harvest' as she nicknamed it after seeing the scythe effortlessly split a Ursa in two longways.

With a single sweep of her folded scythe, she sends the thugs flying through the windows of the Dust shop. The ones remaining in the shop goggle at the madly grinning young girl with a scythe half again as big as she is.

She laughs ominously. This will be FUN...


	7. Chapter 7

Spark 7

Roman's going to have a good day today. He'd arranged for Neo to keep that pesky herobot tied up so he could actually get some thievery done without that damn robot's interference.

* * *

" **FIEND! HOW CAN I PROPERLY FOIL YOU IF YOU WON'T TELL ME ABOUT YOUR EVIL PLANS!** "

Neo folds her arms with a smug smirk

" **No matter! NOBODY CAN POSSIBLY RESIST THE URGE TO MONOLOGUE! _IT'S BUILT INTO EVERY VILLAIN!_** _"_

Neo's smirk becomes even smugger.

 **"Besides which, I'm entirely at your mercy! _Trapped in your clutches_!"**

She rolls her eyes.

* * *

He didn't notice the Madgirl when one of his men pushed her out of his way-or more specifically, recognize who she was.

"Now, listen here, old man. You're going to give us every last granule of Dust in the shop. Water dust. Fire dust. Dust bunnies. You get the picture?"

* * *

…Ruby really, really wants to make bunnies out of dust now that she thinks about what Roman said before she batted that guy through the window. Project for later!

* * *

Roman is of course interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. He whips around. "Okay, now that's…..what the fuck?!" He whips Melodic Cudgel into a ready position before Ruby plows into his remaining men with approximately the same amount of kinetic energy as a avalanche, sending them flying like ragdolls out of the window. Even a unawakened aura should be able to deal with blunt trauma, however; they should be alive but probably unconscious.

"Tch. Wannabe heroes." He growls under his breath.

* * *

Ruby was currently decked out in a far more practical outfit than what one might think of when thinking of her-her iconic red cape tied into a sash across her body which she'd carefully, lovingly sewn multiple tool-holding loops and even a gun holster into just in case she finds something both light enough to fit and strong enough to be worth carrying alongside Splash Zone/Bloody Harvest. Bloody Splash? Splash of Blood? She really needed to come up with a decent name for the whole combination.

Her top is a black studded leather labcoat*, leather having been chosen for it's resistance to heat and to cuts(which the studs improved even more). The lower layers are made of rubber to help insulate her against electricity. All the metal bits were concealed by the leather.

Her hair was tied back since she is, after all, in her working clothes rather than fighting clothes.(After all, she was at the Dust shop in her capacity as Madgirl.) Hair had a nasty tendency to singe when you're being blown up, and it's generally agreed that having your hair on fire is unpleasant, Aura or no aura.

She also wears a pair of welding goggles slapped on her forehead* to help keep her eyes safe during aforementioned explosions.

* * *

Ruby and Roman leave the Dust shop by unspoken agreement that even Ruby wasn't crazy enough to full-on brawl inside it.

"Look, Rusty, I'm really not here to make trouble with you. All we need is the dust, and we can be out of your hair in a minute"

Ruby pretends to think about it before letting go of Bloody harvest with one hand to tick things off on her fingers.

"One:Your man SHOVED me. Two:Sill is my main Dust supplier, and a attack on his livelihood is effectively a attack on me. Three:Truck you.** I'm going to be a Huntress. Do you really think I'm going to stand aside while you rob this man?"

"...Truck? Look, whatever. Rusty, you're scary and all, but you're not scary enough to make me cross *her*. Stand aside or I'll have to kill you. If you're lucky, I'll succeed."

"...Is that a *challenge*?" Her eyes glimmer and her lips curl into a instinctive grin, Spark fugue beginning to kick in.

"No. It's a promise."

…..Oh, now that was just _precious_. Ruby smirks and rushes forward, slowing down her perceived time to a third of normal. Roman's cane whips up at about 3/4ths of what normal speed would be, a flare soon flying from the barrel. Ruby twists into a miniature pirouette, sort of dancing around the flare round which only grazes her leather she comes out of the whirl, she extends Bloody Splash to smash Roman directly in the chest, sending him flying back into a building.

"Deeeiduh Yooooooouh Juuuuust Doooodge A Buuullllletuh?!" Exclaims Roman in slow motion***

"Yes." She enunciates slowly. "The thing about shooting me is, 'you have to point the gun where you want the bullets to go and *I can see that'"* ****

His eyes narrow and he reaches into his jacket, withdrawing a Dust crystal. He sets it off in his hand with a pulse of Aura, generating a curtain of steam into which he vanishes. Ruby hears a Bullhead revving. She drops the semblance before clambering up quickly towards where she hears it and sees the Bullhead.

Roman and some unidentified woman are inside.

She narrows her eyes and switches the scythe to Bloody Harvest mode, anchoring the scythe into the roof and sighting it towards the bullhead.

* * *

"Roman, I thought you said this young girl had a giant mace."

"She did! What's going on out there?" He says from the pilot's chair.

"She appears to have had a scythe, and is aiming the bottom of the haft at us." Cinder hurls a flurry of glass fragments down at Ruby.

* * *

Ruby, when she sees the glass fragments begin to form, activates her semblance at 10x speed.

She slowly takes aim at the woman inside the bullhead as she twitches around the fragments, some primal instinct screaming that SHE was the threat even beyond the glass fragments she'd flung towards her.

She exhales, and neglects to inhale afterwards...

* * *

"Fuck, fuck, we're moving, fuck killing the witness!" Roman screams.

"Roman, what are you talking about? She's hardly a threat, even if she did just evade all that..."

Three things happen all at once.

She flings another flurry downwards

Roman pushes the Bullhead into full throttle.

Ruby pulls the trigger.

A bone-shatteringly loud crack and a scream of agony shred the seemingly peaceful night

* * *

Author's Note:Yay cliffhangers! ;)

This story is going to be mirrored to Spacebattles. In case I accidentally leave this part of the note in:Hi Spacebattles! :D Hope Y'all have been enjoying my quests!

Additionally, omakes are 100% welcome on Spacebattles. Especially awesome Omakes that don't conflict with any of my Mad Plans (yo) may become canon or inspire things to canonically happen. Just don't drop them in the reviews on FFN so people can [s]be subjected to your shitty writing[/s] behold their glory.

*Did you know that blacksmiths wear leather aprons for exactly the reasons I mention? True fact. Since Ruby has been mentioned to work directly with metal, it seemed reasonable for her Madgirl outfit to include a serious amount of leather and, of course, the 100% cliche goggles-on-forehead. The sash is also a cape, it just has detatchable clasps. When worn as a cape, all the tool loops go on the inside. When worn as a sash, they're on the outside.

**Ruby would have said fuck you, except that I find the video of Ruby reading 50 shades of grey to be too fucking hilarious and decided to make a reference to it.

***Fuck it from now on I'm just going to render all slow-motion speech normally

****-Doctor Mcninja


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note:I kept meaning to post this on FFN! I swear! D:

* * *

Cinder clutched in agony at the ragged near-stump that was her right shoulder. She wet her lips and grit her teeth.

"Roman. Fire dust. N-now." She did her best to mask her pain, but it still came out as a hiss. Eyes wide, Roman handed her the one crystal he'd managed to snag. She let go of her shoulder and grabbed it, levelling out the side of the moving bullhead. A cylinder of searing heat roared from the Dust-bearing hand towards Ruby, whose eyes widened slightly. She grabbed quickly for the jar she kept in her pocket as Glynda arrived, riding crop held high. She tapped her Semblance, using it to pull a car-sized chunk of road out of the ground and move it into the path of those flames.

The flames melted the road in seconds, but those seconds were enough.

Ruby focused on the jar in her hand and summoned a hollow dome of palladium around her and Professor Goodwitch. The flames sloughed off the metal, slowly heating through it until the inside felt like a oven.

The flames continued streaming over the dome for two minutes before they ebbed, and the heat-exhausted* Huntresses(with their auras draining at a fair clip from the heat) passed out.

* * *

Emerald paced nervously while Mercury did his best to be nonchalant, legs propped up on the coffee table. Still, his eyes were narrow as the news report played.

"Relax." He said. "Look at the melt on the scene. She was in okay enough shape to leave that kind of damage as she fled, she should be okay. All we have to do is consider what information she has about the threat."

And then Roman entered the room, with Cinder in a bridal carry. The Maiden was practically hissing with anger, though her face was looking a little pale. "I told you I can walk, you buffoon!"

"Now, now, Scorch, if you could walk, you'd be more than capable of making me let you walk. Besides which, I let you try and you fell."

"Holy crap…" Mercury muttered. Emerald was about to echo what he said when he continued. "That has to be the WORST field medicine I've ever witnessed! And are you seriously moving her?! You let the medic come to the injured, not the other way around, unless it's a really minor injury!" Emerald looked kind of indignant at what his 'holy crap' was about.

"...I thought you were a merc, not a medic?"

"I can be two things." He shrugged. "Smoke Knights are bodyguards as well as assassins. Ergo, they're also trained in things like antidotes and basic field medicine." Mercury hesitated. "...Okay, advanced field medicine. Still….Can't say that this looks particularly good." He glances over to Emerald. "Emerald. There's a green bag in my room. Fetch it. Do not open it. It's booby trapped. Bring it here. I will give you some things to sterilize. Do so with fire, alcohol or alcohol on fire." Emerald scurried away, eager to do anything to help Cinder as always.

He turned back to Cinder. "Cinder. There are two ways I can treat you. One is quick and effective, but carries a fair chance of killing you outright if you aren't made of stern enough stuff. The other….I'm not going to lie. You may never use that arm again. You certainly won't be getting much use of it for a year or so. That tore right through the tendon. You might get it down to three months if you laid low and did absolutely nothing that put any stress on that arm."

She dampened her lips nervously, still trying not to show her pain. "What's the first way?"

"I have….a few bottles of a concoction from the Otherland. It's not made for the likes of us humans, but it'll heal you in less than a week. I'll have to stitch you up temporarily, wait for your Aura to recover, and then feed you it."

"Have you ever drunk it?"

"...Yes, but…let's say I built up a tolerance to poisons by then."

Cinder's lips twitched. "...I cannot afford to be laid up for a year." She paused. "Besides, I'm sure it's not my destiny to die from poisoning."

He nodded slightly. "Understood." He paused. "Remember that it is always possible to defy your destiny." Cinder's face settled into a scowl.

"How so?"

"Suicide."

As he left Cinder to ponder his words of wisdom, he turned to address Emerald and deal with retrieving his tools for her to sterilize. His hand jerked back slightly as three scalpels launched themselves from the bag.

"Hm. I made that a little oversensitive." Emerald swallowed in his peripheral vision. He smirked before handing her some of his equipment. "Now, go sterilize those. Understand?" She .nodded quickly before going to do so.

* * *

Ruby stirred quietly before sitting up, yawning slightly. She blinked.

"Ah! What happened!"

"Ruby!" She was suddenly engulfed into a hug, though her vision was still blurry, given the voice, the yellow hair and the softness, she was going to go ahead and guess that that was Yang.

"Y-Yang...stop...lungs...can't…" Her struggles and complaints were summarily ignored.

"Ruby, go ahead and consider that part of your punishment for taking such a stupid risk." Taiyang sighed, before reaching over to pat Ruby lightly on the head.

Justice would be swift, painful, and delicious, she swore to herself. She'd have to bake some kind of prank food.

"Well, I think you did a good job, kiddo."

"Qrow!" Tai yelled.

"What? She couldn't possibly have known about the fact that they had such a advanced combatant." Qrow paused. "If she hadn't been there, Sill Crowne could have died, and Glynda…." He sips his flask. "I'm not exactly happy she took the risk, understand, but that dome she was in saved both their lives. I mean, I had to rip it open so it wouldn't kill them, but still." He takes another gulp of his whiskey. "And by the sound of things, she clipped the bi-the one who tried to fry them. Should be pretty easy to identify her if she goes out in public."

"It was a stupid risk."

"Tai. She's a Huntress...in training, at least. She fought her way tooth and claw to get into Beacon two whole years early. Who does that? Even Pyrrha Nikos didn't advance in years, simply to the head of her class. Do you not remember the level of academic and martial performance we have to get out of them before we even mention them for consideration for advancement? Have you not seen the way she swings Bloody Harvest around when she's training? She was more than justified in thinking that she could handle the situation."

Ruby finally managed to push Yang off her. "Dad, I didn't go looking for trouble. I was just shopping when they barged in. I couldn't just let them push Sill around like that; besides, I needed to buy that Dust." She huffed indignantly. "They didn't look that tough, and they weren't. It was their getaway driver that was." She pouted.

"...Just promise me one thing, Ruby. When you get onto a team, stick with at least one of your teammates whenever you're away from Beacon, okay?"

"Fiiiiine." She groaned.

"Why were you carrying Bloody Harvest, anyway?" Tai asked.

"What, are you expecting me NOT to want to show off my giant weapon?"

"...I'm pretty sure I heard about someone saying that in court during a public indecency case." Yang mused. "I think one of the witnesses said it was in fact below ave-"

"YANG!" Yelled Ruby, face flushed.

* * *

*Author's note:Aura specifically does not protect from heat; however, it does protect from fire. Solution? It protects from heat intense enough to cause direct injury, but not heat low enough that all it does is exhaust you. Basically, it'll keep your brain from frying in your skull, but not protect you against sweating out every last drop of water in your body.


	9. Chapter 9

Ruby stretched on the airship, watching someone who looked like they were about to throw up.

"Hey, Ruby, do you think the cookies will calm stomachs?" Yang asked.

"No...but maybe if I…" and then she was off in the Madness place, cackling to herself and grinning as she broke out her mechashift stove, gleefully producing a wrench from a tool loop that shifts into a spatula, a frying-pan clank, and a rotary saw which the base of is also a portable stovetop.

Four minutes later, Jaune vomits.

Exactly five seconds later, Ruby finishes her stomach calming pancakes.

"Aaaaand do-" She announces cheerfully before seeing the look on Yang's face. "...Oh."

Fortunately, in this world, out of sheer necessity, Yang was...somewhat less protective of her appearance. Mostly because of the fact that being blown up was a fairly frequent occurence when you hung out with Ruby for too long.

So much so that she'd gotten a special dispensation to awaken the Aura of anyone she spent any appreciable amount of time with, and a court order to do so for any and all employees of Madgirl Makings.

It took a few minutes for Ruby to prepare a perfect blend of spices, chemicals and miscellaneous stuff, but soon Yang was perfectly clean. After being assured of it's (probable) non toxicity, the boy who'd vomited on Yang even washed his mouth with the cleaning chemical.

A act so daring that Yang promptly nicknamed him Lab Rat.

"So, Lab Rat…"

"I don't know why you keep calling me that!" He complains.

"You put something Ruby cooked without the express intention of it being eaten in your mouth." Yang deadpanned.

"I thought you said it was safe!" He responds.

"Oh, it won't kill you…" Yang says. "It's just that, you know, you generally test that thing on a animal to make sure it won't change your gender or give you a fully functional womb or something." Neither of those had actually happened, but they didn't seem *too* impractical. Admittedly, the latter was a reference to a mpreg fanfic thing that one of her now-ex-friends had suggested to her. Ugh.

Jaune laughed. "Hehe, that's funny." ...There was a moment of silence. "She's joking, right?" More silence. "Right?!"

"N-nothing I've made has done something THAT extreme!" Ruby protests.

"...Yet." Yang mutters.

"Sooooo…" Ruby says, trying to change the topic. "This is my weapon, Splash Zone!" She pulls the box off her back and lets it crash to the ground before transforming it into the massive scythe.

"Wow!" Jaune says… "...What is it exactly?"

Ruby giggles and pouts. "It's a 150 pound railscythe, capable of launching a 2 ounce slug at mach 6." She says.

…

She was constantly improving it.

"What."

"...It's a railgun that's also a scythe. It launches 2 ounces of metal at over 4 thousand miles per hour." Ruby says, mildly irritated by Jaune's response. "C'mon, Yang, tell him about yours!"

Yang sighs. "High fire-rate minigun/shotgun hybrid gauntlets with spiked knuckles and belt fed ammunition." She was going to be abusing the crap out of the rocket lockers for ammunition storage. "And now Ruby's going to ask-"

"Now tell us about yours!" She says eagerly.

"..." Jaune hesitates. "I have… a sword. And a shield that turns into a sheathe for ease of transport."

Ruby's face twists up like she bit into a lemon, or worse, a oatmeal raisin cookie someone else baked. "That's...a...interesting...choice." She chokes out.

Jaune decides to let her off the hook. "It's not very fancy, but it's a heirloom.

Unfortunately, this seems to have been a mistake.

"NOT VERY FANCY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" She bursts out. "YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY RANGED OPTION, MUCH LESS A VIABLE ONE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO DO IF YOU'RE ALONE AND BEING FACED BY A NEVERMORE? I'M SURE YOUR SHIELDTH WILL WOW THE PUNY GRIMM INTO BOWING BEFORE YOUR MIGHT!" She raves.

"Y-you're right, maybe this was a mistake… I-" Jaune's about to say he'll leave Beacon when he's cut off.

"It's settled then!" Ruby beams as Yang frantically signals 'yes' at Jaune. "I'll help you!"

"Wha- Yes! Thank you! I am forever in your debt!" He quickly cuts himself off with a outpouring of gratitude.

"Don't worry, you're in good hands." Yang informs him. "I have every confidence that Ruby here could make a weapon that could kill a goliath with a sharp rock, a industrial strength rubber band, and five sticks of moderate size." She winks.

Ruby freezes and tilts her head, getting a far-off look in her eyes as she activates her Semblance.

She ignores Yang as she says, "That should buy us at least five minutes, Lab Rat. My name is Yang, and my overexcitable little sister here is Ruby."

"I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, the ladies love it."

"Wow, we got a ladies' man over here~" She snickers as Jaune blushes.

"Is, uh, is she alright?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine. Those hypothetical situations almost never turn out a usable piece of equipment, but they are usually valuable for other reasons. The last time I gave her a weapon based hypothetical impossibility, we learned a way to bake bread in weapon molds to make actual practical weapons."

"...What?"

"Haven't you heard of Madgirl Makings Battlebread? 'For the most lethal of food fights'?" (Warnings were on the label that it should only be used on those with aura.)

"...What the heck kind of situation did you make up?"

"I told her she was fighting the mother of all Grimm, who was riding on a Grimm dragon, and all she had access to was a bakery." Yang admits shamelessly. "That one almost made her miss the surprise party." She pauses. "The cannon didn't work, but when we made a sword with the same principles it worked just fine."

"...Your sister is scary."

"AHA!" Ruby crows before starting to dart off...before slamming directly into a cart loaded with briefcases. Her tool-cape manages to land in a way that covers her face.

"Watch it, you oaf! Do you have any idea what you could haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" has crashed. Please hold.

"...Is she okay?" Ruby asked herself, having just removed the cape from her face.

"I-I'm sorry, Miss Rose!" The Schnee Heiress blurts out.

"...You know my name?"

"Of course I do! Why, don't you know mine?" Weiss asked. "Oh, wait, no, it's alright!" She exclaims quickly when she sees Ruby make a awkward expression. "I heard that you don't spend much time outside your lab…" She leans down to pick up a vial of Dust, but accidentally grabs it by the cork instead of the glass, and it comes loose…

-One Sneeze of Epic Proportions Later-

"I-I'm so sorry!" Ruby exclaims. "Usually the explosions only happen when I'm busy working, a-and I make sure most of the people supposed to be there are wearing appropriate protective gear, and-"

"It's alright, really!" Weiss hastily reassures her. "It was a accident, and there's no harm done. I can always get more Dust. After all, I'm-"

A black-haired girl wearing thick-rimmed glasses(With a athletic strap, of course), a heavily scarred arm, and a bow interrupts. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee fortune, which will make her the majority owner of the Schnee Dust Company, manufacturer of pretty much everything, including soda, toothpaste and actual Dust related products."

Weiss blinks at the last part of that sentence before rallying. "You see? Recognition! I'm kind of a big deal." She gloat/brags.

"The same company that is under investigation from many government and independent sources for work safety violation, failure to meet proper industrial standards in some of their products, and unethical business practices, including discrimination."

"H-hrk!" Weiss can't even seem to form a response to that.

"And you, of course, are Ruby Rose, the Madgirl, responsible for seriously improving the standard weaponry of the Atlesian army and their robots."

"Yep! That's me!" She cheerfully agrees, before blinking and suddenly having a sinking feeling.

"...The same army and robots that have been used to break up peaceful protests, most notably three protests about anti-Faunus discrimination in the SDC's dust extraction industries."

"Uhh…." She pauses. "Okay, it's not my fault if they use my inventions to do things BESIDES help people!"

"You could STOP supplying them!" Blake retorts.

"So you're suggesting that I deprive the Atlesian Army, a force mainly dedicated to the defense of Atlas and to emergency reponses from any of the other Kingdoms, of weapons that would help keep them safe?" Ruby responds.

"You could at least pr-Whatever." The black-haired totally-not-a-faunus leapt away, fading in a flash of darkness as she cut herself off mid-sentence.

…

"That was weird." Ruby noted.

"Tell me about it…" Groaned Weiss.

* * *

After Ozpin's speech, Ruby took a minute with Yang to laugh at Jaune's nightie...that is, before she actually took a minute to poke at it as something caught her eye about it.

"...What the heck?" She mumbled.

"Uh, what" poke "are" pokepoke "you" POKEPOKEPOKE "doing?" Jaune asked amid a flurry of pokes from Ruby.

"This fabric...isn't right." She said bluntly. POKEPOKEPOKEPOKE. "...Does any of your family or any of your other friends act anything like me?"

"What? No!" Jaune protested. "I, I mean, c'mon, it's not odd for a young kid to act excitable, and other than that, no!"

Ruby blinks. "Well, then you're going to have to explain to me how you got a hybrid carbon nanoweave and spidersilk set of PJs."

"...One of my sisters gave it to me."

"A-HA!" She crowed.

"Aha what?" Jaune asked.

"Yo-" Her brain catches up with her mouth. "Nothing!" She snaps lightly, annoyed with herself. "Just...nothing!"

"O...kay then." 'Girls,' Jaune thought to himself. 'Never try to understand girls.'

A pair of bespectacled eyes belonging to a bemused Blake watch the Spark. 'She's… Not what I expected.' She thought to herself. 'I'll have to keep a eye on her. It's hard to believe they'd let anyone into Beacon at only 15, and if what I overheard' here her bow twitches slightly on instinct 'was right, then if my ears are ever uncovered I might be able to pass it off as a adverse reaction to something she made.'

A pair of pink eyes watch the Spark as well. 'Thank God Nora isn't like her. If she was the Madgirl, then we'd probably have to deal with her making ninja robot pirate sloths, only for the sloths to start a revolution because they weren't given enough pancakes, culminating in her "Recruiting" a grimm to act as a mount that she rides into the fray.

That, or she'd just make some sort of automatic-automatic pancake machine-machine and we'd be flooded with machines flooding us with pancakes.'

He sips lightly at his tea, poured by a Madgirl Makings Priori-Tea Automatic Tea Preparer he'd recently managed to get, once they actually had a decent sum of money.

'Thank God.' He repeats to himself as he pats Nora on the head, since she's currently lying down and snoozing in his lap.


End file.
